Thermal Camera Setup for Fire Detection: FLIR Lepton 3.5 & Raspberry Pi 5

Automation and Control Sensors Transducers
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Hi DigiKey Support Team & Community,

I am planning to develop a thermal monitoring system using a Raspberry Pi 5 to detect sudden fire hazards/hotspots in overhead electrical wiring.

I am currently considering the FLIR Lepton 3.5 (Part Number: 500-0771-01). Since this is my first time working with the Lepton series, I would appreciate your guidance on the following points:

  1. Breakout / Carrier Board Recommendation:

    What is the most reliable breakout or carrier board to interface the FLIR Lepton 3.5 with a Raspberry Pi 5? (e.g., PureThermal 3, Lepton Breakout Board V2.0, or other DigiKey options?)

  2. Cablings & Accessories:

    Are there any specific cables, adapters, or accessories required to ensure a stable connection between the carrier board and the Raspberry Pi 5 (whether via USB or SPI/I2C)?

  3. Alternative Modules:

    Are there alternative thermal imaging modules available on DigiKey that might be easier to integrate or better suited for this specific application with a Raspberry Pi 5 compared to the FLIR Lepton 3.5?

Please kindly provide the relevant DigiKey Part Numbers for your recommendations.

Thank you for your support!

2

Hello iotadmin,
Welcome to the TechFourm, at present we have the evaluation board and a expansion board on our webpage for the part.

4

Hi Quinn,
Could you please help clarify which carrier board is better suited for a Raspberry Pi 5 paired with the FLIR Lepton 3.5 (500-0771-01): the PureThermal 3 or the Lepton Breakout Board V2.0?

Thank you!

5

PureThermal 3 uses a companion chip over USB to export the Flir Lepton as a standard UVC device (webcam).. The Lepton Breakout Board V2.0, relies on you exporting the spi port and wiring up the SPI interface and utilizing the spidev library. For ease of use, the PureTermal 3 is nice upgrade over the older Lepton Breakout design.

PureThermal firmware: GitHub - groupgets/purethermal1-firmware: Reference firmware for PureThermal 1 FLIR Lepton Dev Kit · GitHub

Here is the Lepton example app: GitHub - FLIR/Lepton: FLIR® Lepton uncooled thermal imager · GitHub

Regards,

6

Thank you for your information sir.